I started with Mage: The Hero Discovered back in the mid-1980s with the Starblaze editions. I'd put that series somewhere near the bottom of the top tier of independent comics of the first great era of independents. The fate of Comico (and Eclipse) was a cruel end to that era, at least for me.

I always made sure to pick up issues of the followup series, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to crack them open... maybe it was not wanting to get invested in a story that might never finish? Whatever the reason, putting down a series has the unfortunate risk of never picking it up, so I made an effort to try to finish both The Hero Defined and The Hero Denied this summer (after a false start a couple of years ago).

Ultimately... I wasn't thrilled with either continuation. I didn't like the modern coloring of either v2 or v3, but that could just be a matter of taste. I think it is that Wagner's style (as reflected in the page layouts) was simplistic and that the coloring ended up looking too bland. I know this is supposed to be somewhat autobiographic, and while I hold no grudges about this approach, I found no real dramatic tension in these later volumes. I offer congratulations to Wagner for finishing the story, but had I stuck with only v1 I think I'd have a greater opinion of it.